You may have noticed some server instability lately. We're working on isolating the causes and getting that all taken care of. Thankfully, it comes in short bursts so if you wait a few minutes everything should be up and running again.

In the meantime, we invite all of you again to make sure you check out Our YouTube Channel and Our Facebook Page and follow us there as well. As we press on into the new year we'll be making much more use of both of these services.

Just over 2 months left until the US release of HeartGold and SoulSilver. Expect a wealth of information as more details are confirmed in the future. And, of course, continued updates on Our YouTube Channel with previews of the games!

We apologize again for the recent downtime issues. Don't worry, they're being sorted out and should be taken care of soon.

In spite of the downtime, however, we've been hard at work. We've started uploading a quick overview of The PokeWalker, with more info coming soon. We've also compiled a quick Move Tutor Guide for HGSS as well, in the same style as for previous games.

We thank you again for bearing with us during these technical difficulties, and look forward to the release of HeartGold and SoulSilver in just under 2 months time. More guides will be coming soon, so keep an eye out.

As a promotion for the upcoming release of HeartGold and SoulSilver in the US on March 14th, Gamestop is holding a giveaway. Bring in your DS and Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum between January 30th and February 14th to receive a Pikachu-Colored Pichu.

What's more, once you pick up HeartGold or SoulSilver, you can transfer this Pichu over and bring it to Ilex Forest to encounter the Spiky-Eared Pichu as well! Don't miss this opportunity starting this Saturday. For more details, see the Official Flier.

Don't forget, HeartGold and SoulSilver hit the US on March 14th, Australia on March 25th, and Europe on March 26th!

Earlier this week, GameFreak officially announced that the next set of Pokemon games were coming to Japan this fall on the Nintendo DS. Also, today on Pokemon Sunday, GameFreak director Junichi Masuda revealed the silhouette of the first Pokemon from the new set of games. It is currently nameless, but it will be important to the plot of the upcoming 13th movie, and will also be fully revealed on Pokemon Sunday in two weeks.

Preempting the announcement next Sunday, however, scans of the March 2010's Corocoro magazine have been leaked, revealing the new Pokemon, Zoroark, and its pre-evolution, Zorua. They are pure Dark-type fox Pokemon:

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. And Happy Chinese New Year! We got you some presents!

First off, thanks to a ton of work by Frost, the TCG Section has been completely revamped and now includes a bunch more of the promotional card sets as well as the new HeartGold & SoulSilver expansion that was released last Wednesday.

Moving on, in celebration of only one month remaining before the North American release of HeartGold and SoulSilver, a few updates for the new games. First off, a list of Version Exclusives, in keeping with past generations.

Up next, we've got a guide for the HeartGold and SoulSilver Battle Frontier! If you've been to the Battle Frontier in the earlier Generation 4 games, you'll find it comfortably familiar.

And, to help you find your way around the world of HeartGold and SoulSilver, and to know what to expect along your journey, an Interactive Map for both Johto and Kanto.

Finally, if you've ever wondered which chains of types would be equivalent to the starters' Grass/Fire/Water triangle in weaknesses, resistances and immunities to each other, check out the "Type Loop" update at the bottom of the types explanation page.

Only one month left before HeartGold and SoulSilver see their English release. Keep watching for some more updates very soon.

Next up, you'll find the Pokeathlon Stats Page, which covers the new Pokeathlon in HGSS, taking the place of Contests. In addition to the summary page there, you'll find that the Psydex Stats Pages have been updated accordingly.

Finally, the folks at GameStop are running another exclusive promotion. Beginning today and up until Saturday the 13th (the day before HGSS are released), you can receive a special Jirachi for your Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum game. If you then trade this Jirachi into HeartGold or SoulSilver, you can unlock a special area in the Pokewalker called Night Sky's Edge. The official press is here.

There's only one week left now before the North American release of HeartGold and SoulSilver. In celebration of the occasion, we have some more presents for you.

First off, because of some slight changes to the mechanics, make sure to read up on the new Breeding Guide before starting to raise your Pokemon.

Next up, if you still have an old DS or a DS Lite, you can take advantage of the PalPark to import Pokemon from the GBA games into HGSS. Remember; the DSi and upcoming DSi XL can't play GBA games, and thus can't use the PalPark!

As you progress through HeartGold and SoulSilver, you'll begin to unravel the mystery of the Unown and Ruins of Alph. There are several puzzles to solve and many valuable items you can find there.

Finally, as you move through the games, you'll find many opportunities to have your Photo Taken with your Pokemon. We've compiled a nice little guide to let you know where and when that happens.

There's only one week left, and I can promise there's still one more big present on its way before the 14th. Have you preordered your games yet?

There are just two more days until HeartGold and SoulSilver see their North American release. And we just can't wait to start celebrating! In fact, you'll notice that we've restyled the website theme to be a little more Johto!

The Psydex has been updated to include the Pokedex Entries for all Pokemon in HeartGold and SoulSilver. Note that many of these entries are the same as their original Gold and Silver counterparts, while some have changed slightly. For some Pokemon not appearing in the new games except by trade or PalPark, the entries in both games are the same.

To help you navigate the games when they're released, we've also compiled some Game Maps of various dungeons, caves, or structures you'll find yourself wandering though.

We've updated our page on the Battle Frontier to now list all of the Trainers that you'll find there, all of the Pokemon that will be used against you in battle, and all of the Teams of Pokemon that each trainer can assemble from those lists.

Next up, we've added a list of TMs/HMs and their in-game locations from the games for you. We've also updated the Game Maps to include several more caves, dungeons, and towers to help you navigate through them all on your quest.

Finally, thanks to much hard work on Frost's part, we are proud to present you with a Complete HeartGold and SoulSilver Walkthrough for the sixteen badges. Mt. Silver and other optional areas will be added in the coming days.

We hope you're all enjoying HeartGold and SoulSilver. Keep watching here for even more guides to be added to help you work your way through all these games have to offer.

After the highly successful launch of HeartGold and SoulSilver in North America, there's still so much left to do. We're thrilled to see so many people taking advantage of the HeartGold and SoulSilver Walkthrough for the full 16-badge main quest.

We've also compiled a full guide to one of HGSS's new features, the Pokeathlon, to go along with the existing Pokeathlon Stats guide.

Frost has also updated the rosters of the main characters of the anime. Next, might he be able to update the episode list before 2014?

Finally, it's time to get back to our video updates! Here's Ecruteak City - the Burned Tower and Ecruteak Gym!

-A miscellaneous section, which covers material across both Regions, including the S.S. Aqua's voyages, Roaming Pokemon (Raikou, Entei and Lati@s) and a list of items that require HMs moves that aren't available when you first travel through their locations.

We hope you all enjoyed our little April-Fool's flashback. Yes, that banner was actually a part of Psypoke's history. The rest of the layout was inspired by an older style.

Of course, the real fun was in the celebration of how popular the HeartGold and SoulSilver Section has been. Since the original Gold and Silver came out nearly 10 years ago, we thought it would be fun to remove everything released after those games, and re-celebrate the release of the original titles instead of celebrating the release of the remakes.

We hope you all enjoyed everything we planned out, including our forum-visitors who found the place a little smaller for the day.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to note is that, starting back on April Fools and going until early May, you can receive a new PokeWalker Route via WiFi! The Yellow Forest is full of special Pikachu with all sorts of moves they wouldn't normally learn.

To access the new route, just fire up your Mystery Gift, elect to receive a gift over Nintendo WiFi, pick up the pass at the PokeMart, save your game, and send a Pokemon on a stroll to the new area!

Speaking of Nintendo Events, you'll notice that to your right we've implemented a list of Current and Upcoming Events. This list will let you know what sort of Nintendo Events are currently going on around the world, and also what Events are coming up in the future.

Lastly, I've got two more new videos for you all - both from Cianwood City. There you'll battle both Eusine and the Gym Leader Chuck.

Over at the Japanese Pokemon Website a teaser trailer has been launched for Pokemon Black and White Versions. There isn't much else in the way of info for right now, but it appears we can expect more info next Thursday, April 15th. For now, all we have is the promise that the franchise will be completely reborn with these new games.

Moving back to the here and now, we're very happy to announce some more updates to our HeartGold and SoulSilver section.

First off, we're thrilled to present an in-depth guide to the Headbutt capture method in these games, including what can be found Pre-National Dex, Post-National Dex, and only in special locations, as well as an exhaustive list of all the locations a particular Pokemon can be found. The Psydex has been updated with this information as well, including frequency and level range data.

Next up, we've put together a list of all the Items in the games, their prices, and descriptions. We're compiling all the location data now, so expect that soon.

Next up, some more videos. A special presentation of Amphy at the Lighthouse, and then battling Jasmine!

As promised, the official site has provided more details on the upcoming fifth generation of Pokemon games - six screenshots were released today. These screenshots show the dramatically different camera perspectives these new games will use.

Little else is known at this time, but the games are slated for a 2010 release on the Nintendo DS.

With respect to our still-growing HeartGold and SoulSilver section, the Safari Zone write-up is now complete, with of the twelve areas, the objects available, the Pokemon, their levels and locations all listed in this comprehensive guide. Furthermore, the locations have been automagically added to the Psydex for your convenience. Enjoy!

Lastly, we've made several general bug fixes around the site. The most noticeable fixes should be the Psydex - faster loading times and better cross-platform support, the TCG Search - a Type Search bug, and the HGSS Headbutt Guide - the separate lists are for Common Trees vs Rare Trees, not whether or not the player has the National Dex as originally thought.

Another update so soon? Those of you already following us on YouTube may have seen this earlier this afternoon, but we've got an exciting new video for you. The most recent episode of Pokemon Sunday showed a very short clip of actual gameplay from the upcoming Black and White versions.

Up next, we've reclassified the way that you can search for attacks in an Effect Search in the Psydex's Attack Search function.

Frost has also written up a Critical Hit Guide to explain how the Critical Hit mechanic works in the various generations of the games. The information has also been integrated into the TechDex.

Lastly, we are currently in the process of completely rebuilding the Damage Calculator from the ground up. Soon it will be a more efficient and effective tool, addressing the issues that have been discovered in the current implementation.

Today on Pokemon Sunday, the silhouettes of the starters for Pokemon Black & White Versions were shown. Little information was actually given, as the announcement came at the very end of the show. The silhouettes were shown twice. The video below shows everything we saw.

In other news, there is other news! You'll notice to your right that a new Nintendo Event has been added. For the next month and a half, you can pick up another route for your PokeWalker, the Winner's Path, where Pokemon know strange movesets.

In accordance, you'll notice that the PokeWalker Guide has been finished off with the rest of the information it still needed for all the different routes.

While we wait for some official word on just what those silhouettes actually will look like, we've been hard at work on more HGSS content.

Firstly, the Pick Up page has been updated to include what you'll find in HGSS, as it's slightly different from what's found in DPP.

Next up, given the information added to the Pokewalker and the Pick Up page above, the Items Guide for HGSS has gone and updated itself with all of this information - locations are now listed for items found via Pick Up, Pokewalker Dowsing MCHN, and held by Pokemon from the Pokewalker.

And as expected, scans of CoroCoro magazine have been leaked. The region is called Isshu, and this isn't much else known at this time except a low-quality picture of the starters.

In addition, I'm happy to announce the release of the upgraded Damage Calculator. Please make use of it and post any potential bugs in the forums, as there is still more work that's going to be done, and we can include anything that may have been missed.

Pokemon Sunday information has been added below, even though this update is dated as May 13th. Also, the official Japanese Pokemon site has updated with several new Black/White screenshots.

Multiple sites across the internet are saying that the names of the starters rumored to be Tsutaaja (Grass), Pokabu (Fire) and Mijumaru (Water), but we're waiting for this weekend's episode of Pokemon Sunday to see if this is accurate. Pokemon Sunday did indeed confirm these names are accurate. Also, a few new gameplay videos were shown and the Pokemon now have animations when they are idle during battles. Best of all, moronic NPCs will finally walk AROUND you instead of becoming road blocks!

Other tidbits revealed since yesterday's update are: the main characters are bit older than previous ones; Zoroark will be available after trading one of the shiny Legendary Beasts to Black and White, which was also confirmed on Pokemon Sunday; Zoroark's ability, Illusion, gives it the appearance of other Pokemon; and Zoroark has two known new attacks. One is Trickery, which damages based on the opponent's stats, and the other is Claw Sharpen, which raises the user's Attack and Accuracy. Pokemon Sunday also confirmed that Zoroark retains its Dark-type when under the illusion of another Pokemon, as Raikou was seen using Aura Sphere against Zoroark as an Entei.

In the meantime, the newest English TCG expansion, called HGSS Unleashed, was released yesterday and, as usual, I've transcribed the set and added them to the TCG section. The set comes from multiple different Japanese decks and sets, including the Japanese HGSS set, the Leafeon VS Metagross deck, the Battle Starter Decks and the last Japanese expansion (Revived Legends). I personally think it's a disappointing, filler set with a lot of bad 3D artwork overall. I also updated the HGSS Black Star Promos list.

Also, don't forget about the updates and corrections made to the Damage Calculator! A staff member worked very hard on it and it was lost in the shuffle due to the starters being revealed yesterday.

Before we get into games, however, if you look to the right, you'll see that the Events List has been updated to include Video Game Championship Eevees and an upcoming Celebi in Japan for the 13th movie - the first opportunity to activate the Ilex Forest event.

For games, starting with HGSS we've made a few more additions. First off, there's a guide for the PokeGear Phonebook. The guide includes whose numbers you can register, where you will find them, and any special benefits to letting them call you.

The Items Guide has also been further updated with more locations. All items available for purchase at Pokemarts in Johto and Kanto have a handy mouseover. If an item can be found held by a wild Pokemon, there's also a note about that.

Moving on to Black and White, given the amount of information that is now available, it's only fitting to start compiling it. You'll find a compilation of Screenshots to look at. And, for any questions that you need addressed, just check out the FAQs.

We'll continue to update as more information comes out. Make sure you're following us on YouTube and on Facebook for access to more videos and updates before they get posted here to the main page!

First off, given all the information on the Pokewalker page, it's only natural that it be included in the Psydex and Techdex.-Locations have been updated to include all the Pokewalker Routes you can find a Pokemon on.-Any new moves those Pokemon know are listed as Gift Moves on the Tutored Moves page.-Similarly, the Learn by Tutor/Other page in the TechDex has been updated with the Pokewalker moves.-All new moves are also listed in the Learnsets page for a Pokemon as well.

I'm very happy to announce that the Damage Calculator has been fully upgraded to be more user-friendly and accurate (and have a much cooler output than before). This should address any bugs that have been encountered in the past, but if anything seems off just drop us a note and we'll double check. You can now also override types and abilities to account for any potential changes in the midst of the battle. Many thanks to those who worked hard on making this massive revision possible.

Next up, to go along with the Current and Upcoming Events you see to the right, there is now a list of Nintendo Events. At the moment it only features events from this year, but it will be expanded to include older events in the future. It provides far more information than the little Events Bar on the right side of the page. Clicking the name of any event in the Events Bar will take you straight to the listing in the Nintendo Events page.

And lastly, we have more videos for you from HeartGold and SoulSilver. Here's the first bit of the Goldenrod Radio Tower quest - Petrel, Rival, and Proton.

We are very happy to announce a special new affiliate for our website. ZeldaInformer is a popular Zelda site, and they happen to be hosting a Pokemon League in the near future. We are partnering up with ZeldaInformer to promote their Pokemon League and encourage all of you to check it out and sign up.

For those of you visiting us from ZeldaInformer, you'll want to check out the Psydex for information on Pokemon and their attacks. You can use the Psylab for important info on game mechanics and hidden numbers that contribute to battling. Finally, you can use our Forums to get your team rated and balanced.

I've also got two more videos from HeartGold & SoulSilver - the remainder of the Goldenrod Radio Tower, battles against Team Rocket Executives Ariana and Archer.

The official English Pokemon site has updated with a new flash animation that ends with two new creatures: Reshiram and Zekrom. While the animation doesn't explicitly state that they are new Pokemon, information from the site and from Nintendo's Press Release make it clear that these are the mascot legendary Pokemon for Black and White. This makes them the sixth and seventh known Pokemon from Black and White after Zorua, Zoroark and the Starter trio of Tsutaaja, Pokabu and Mijumaru. The animation also officially confirms that we'll be getting Black and White in Spring 2011 in America.

So much to do now that summer's underway. Let's start with HeartGold and SoulSilver.

Australian players should take note of the Fateful Encounter Jirachi that is now available for all Generation IV games - Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver - from Toys 'R' Us and select Big W retail stores. Since this is a Fateful Encounter, it will unlock Night Sky's Edge on your Pokewalker if it finds its way to HG or SS. The event runs for the next 10 days.

First off, the Black and White FAQs Page and the Black and White Screenshots Page have both been updated recently with newer information, so be sure to check those out.

While there is very little information about any of the Pokemon in Black and White, there has become too much to elegantly contain it in paragraph form. As such, a special New Pokemon section has been added to the Psydex to help organize the information as it is revealed.

The individual pages do contain some speculative information, which has been extensively noted on the page - see Tsutaaja for an example.

Lastly, for your convenience I have taken and compiled 4 teaser videos recently posted to the official Black and White site. These videos show walking around Hiun City, and the 3 starters using super effective attacks on eachother.

Since there haven't been any significant developments in terms of Black and White recently, we've been working on a few other things around the site.

For the most part, it's been fixing up little things here and there. Please make use of the forums or the Contact Form to let us know if you spot anything that doesn't seem to be working right, or any instance where I seem to have forgotten how to spell.

The biggest thing I've been working on has been filling in more info for Items in HeartGold & SoulSilver. Specifically, all the items found in Johto via the Dowsing MCHN have now been added (save for 2 or 3 dungeons I have yet to get mapped).

I've also gone ahead and extended the Events List to the right to also include an Upcoming Games list, for those future releases. Expect more to happen with this new list in the future.

E3 begins next Tuesday. We'll be sure to keep you covered on any developments that may arise. Follow us on Facebook for even more coverage and other comments/notes from the staff!

July 2010 Corocoro Leaks: 7 New Pokemon and Professor Revealed[permalink]

Posted by Frost on 11 Jun 2010 at 7:11am PDT

Update (Sunday 6/13): Nothing was revealed on Pokemon Sunday this week. We recorded a feed of the show, but they only showed silhouettes for four of the Pokemon leaked early because of Corocoro. (Mamepato, Shimama and Mokuguro silhouettes were not shown.) It has also been revealed that Zorua and Zoroark cannot be found in Black and White normally; event-based Celebi or Legendary Dogs must be traded to a Generation V game in order to get Zorua and Zoroark, respectively.

Corocoro leaked early this morning. Unfortunately, all of our staff was asleep until just now. Regardless, Corocoro revealed a bunch of new information, including stats about Reshiram and Zekrom. Reshiram, the "White Yang" Pokemon, is a Dragon/Fire-type who is 3.2m tall and weights 330kg. Zekrom, the "Black Yin" Pokemon, is a Dragon/Electric-type (as hinted on a Pokemon Sunday staff member's blog a couple of weeks ago) who is 2.9m tall and weighs 345kg.

Corocoro also debuted seven new Pokemon as well as the Isshu region's Professor. Let's start with her. Yes, for the first time, a Pokemon game has a female Professor named Araragi.

Araragi does the "World of Pokemon" introduction by showing off the new Pokemon Chiraamii, a cute Normal-type whose species is the Chinchilla Pokemon. Its height and weight are 0.4m and 5.8kg, it has the abilities Cute Charm and Technician, and it knows a new multiple-hit move called "Sweet Slap."

A new pigeon-based Pokemon named Mamepato is a Normal/Flying-type who is most likely Isshu Region's Starly archetype. Its species is the Baby Pigeon Pokemon. Its height is 0.3m and its weight is 2.1kg; one of its abilities is Super Luck, and it has a new ability that appears to prevent some stat reductions.

A gear-derived Pokemon that has a name that romanizes to "Gear" (Giaru) is a new Steel-type that can have either Plus or Minus as its abilities. Like its name and basis, its species is the Gear Pokemon. Its height and weight are 0.3m and 21.0kg, and it has a new attack that strikes the opponent multiple times.

A new pink Pokemon called Munna is a Psychic-type "Dream Eater" species Pokemon with the abilities Forewarn and Synchronize. A few sites have reported that it is a pig Pokemon, but... it doesn't look like one to me. Its height and weight are 0.6m and 23.3kg, and it knows a new move called "Telekinesis," that causes Pokemon on the field to float.

Hihidaruma, the Flaming species Pokemon, is a Fire-type ape-like Pokemon. Its height and weight are 1.3m and 92.9kg, and it has a new ability, although details about it are unknown right now.

Shimama is an Electric-type horse Pokemon. It is the Charging Pokemon, having a height of 0.8m and weight of 29.8kg. It has two existing abilities, Lightningrod or Motor Drive, and it knows a new recoil attack.

Finally, Meguroko is a Ground/Dark-type crocodile Pokemon, with its species being the appropriate Desert Crocodile Pokemon. Its height is 0.7m and its weight is 15.2kg. One of its abilities is Intimidate, while another one is new and boosts its Attack after it knocks out an opponent.

There are also two new Wi-Fi capabilities, although the magazine only describes one in depth. You can now battle random opponents on Wi-Fi using Random Match.

Barring any last-minute announcements out of left field, E3 has left us surprisingly uninformed when it comes to Black & White. That said, I have added more screenshots from the official site (which has been redesigned in a manner that seems HTML5 compliant - cool!) to our Screenshots page. From that, we were able to add Sugimori art and sprites for most of the new Pokemon to the Psydex - though a few sprites were too small or obscured.

What we did get from E3 is confirmation of Pokemon Ranger 3's name - Guardian Signs - and the official North American announcement of PokePark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure. You can see a trailer here. With that, I'll leave you to your regularly scheduled complaints of how the Pokemon are unoriginal in the Talkbacks, but expect another surprise update in the near future.

After more than 6 years of use (almost 3 of them with the Talkbacks), we have finally decided to retire the way we do News around here. This new interface is sleeker on the main page and much easier to work with. Headlines and bylines have been restyled to work with the site theme better and stand out when necessary.

Next to every headline is a Permalink, allowing you to bookmark a specific News story all by itself, regardless of age. Clicking one of these brings you to an article-by-article news system which shows the complete article and all talkbacks for it, plus the box for you to provide your own feedback. You can thumb through from one News article to the next with the Older and Newer links on the page as well. Clicking on the Talkback link of a story will bring you to this same page, but jump straight to the Talkbacks.

Following each article, we've implemented a Tags system, to help you find related News on the site. Click on any Tag to search for all News articles that contain it, and from there, use Expand to view the News Permalink for any article.

Finally, we've added the ability to share a News article with your friends. This is technically a public beta - at the moment you can Like a News article via Facebook. If it goes over well, then in the future, more ways to share news with your friends will be added.

So, what do you think? If you have any feedback on this new News system - try out the revamped Talkbacks and let us know!

After seeing the success of our new News system and how many people are taking advantage of the new ways to share the articles with others, we've expanded the options for sharing. You can now post a link to your Facebook profile via the "Share" button.

In addition, I've added an RSS feed to the page. You can subscribe to it via that link, or from the RSS icon next to the "Site News" header on the main page. It provides the 10 most recent updates, just like the main page.

Lastly, European players will be able to receive a Jirachi (just recently available in Australia at Toys 'R' Us) via WiFi starting this Saturday. Since it is being distributed over WiFi, it may not be exclusive to Europe, but the announcement was made on the UK's HeartGold and SoulSilver site.

Let's start with the news from Japan. First off, Pokemon Black and White now have a concrete release date of September 18th, 2010 in Japan. We couldn't have picked a better date ourselves.

We also have some clarification on exactly what Zoroark's Illusion ability will do. When sent into battle, Zoroark will take on the name and sprite of another Pokemon in your party. Most likely this would be the next Pokemon in the list who has not fainted, but all we know for certain at this time is that if Zoroark is the party leader, it will masquerade as the second Pokemon in the party when sent into battle.

In addition, the final Pokewalker Route, Amity Meadow will be available to anyone attending the Japan Railway's expo next month. There is no word yet on any availability outside of Japan.

While we're on Nintendo Events, many thanks to our visitors from around the world for confirming that the Summer 2010 Jirachi available over Wifi and promoted in Europe is available in both North America and Australia as well.

Finally, I'm happy to announce the launch of a brand new game here at Psypoke. This is a simple game integrated into our whole website for anyone who has registered in the Forums to play. We call it Psyfari Zone.

The game is very simple - every time you load a page on the site (not including the forums) there is a small chance that a Pokemon may float in from off screen. Your cursor will change to a Poke Ball to alert you to this. Simply click on the Pokemon to capture it. You must be a member of our Forums for Pokemon to appear. You must also be logged in when browsing the site. Once captured, the same Pokemon will not appear again, so you won't double up. Lastly, in contrast to other such games, Pokemon will not appear on specific pages - any page may result in any Pokemon at any time.

There are 40 different Pokemon you can catch, chosen from the staff's favorites, popular Psychic-types, and the Starters. You can check your progress and see who has the most on the Psyfari Zone page, or if you'd rather not play you can also opt out.

I am happy to present to you two more videos for Pokemon Black and White. The first is a promo video shown yesterday on Pokemon Sunday. The second is a brand new full trailer shown today (June 28th in Japan).

As for who the new Pokemon are, so far we know the following.In the 2-on-2 battle of the first two shots above, you have Ononokusu and Doryuuzu opposing, while Desukaan and Denchura are the player's active Pokemon.Moguryuu is the black Pokemon facing away on the right of the third and fifth shots above.Opposing it in this new 3-on-3 battle are three unnamed Pokemon.

Again, you may wish to view the full Video for a better look of all the features, or the 20+ Screenshots from it for a quick summary.

On Sunday, some concept art from the upcoming Black and White-based anime had leaked to the internet that revealed four unseen Pokemon and new characters. We neglected to mention the leak at the time because there was no confirmation that it was legitimate. However, after today's episode of Diamond and Pearl aired in Japan, a promo played for the upcoming series, which is officially titled Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes, and a shadowed character was shown that matched the girl next to Ash in the concept art:

As such, it is likely the concept art is legitimate. In addition to the female character, there's an older male character with an Umbreon whose role is not yet known, as well as Ash, Jessie, James, Pikachu and Meowth. Shown between Jessie and the female character are two new Pokemon: a small creature about the size of Pikachu and a winged creature. Between Team Rocket and the unknown older man are what appears to be Tsutaaja and Mijumaru's evolutions.

Best Wishes is set to begin this September in conjunction with the release of the new games. It's unknown if Dawn or Brock will be returning, but their outlook isn't so bright based on this artwork.

Last year, we had Psypoke Idol 2, where Lugia emerged victorious out of 512 eligible Pokemon. This year, we are holding the second Great Pokemon Character Tournament. We first held this contest entirely on our forums in 2005, and thought it'd be a good idea to bring back to give the site an activity until the release of Black and White.

GCPT2 has 128 characters from the main series games, the spinoff games and the anime. The format for the first month will play out exactly like Psypoke Idol's, in which the characters are rated on a 1-5 scale. The top four from the four rounds will move on to a VS format contest in which two characters will be voted on each week and the one with the highest total of votes advances until only one remains. At this rate, GPCT2 will end on BW's release date, September 18th.

Koromori, which is the name of the flying puffball next to Jessie's head in the Best Wishes concept art posted in a previous update, was confirmed as a legitimate Pokemon in battle footage that aired a few hours ago on Oha Suta, which is also where the BW trailer that revealed eight new Pokemon aired.

Bandai has also created a figurine of the small Larvitar-like Pokemon found between the new girl and Jessie in the concept art, along with another potential new Pokemon, but it is not yet known if these two are legitimate. Still, the first Pokemon matches the concept art, so there's a good chance of them being authentic. Here are images for both of the figures as well as a battle picture of Koromori's back sprite. The Koromori image was taken from the useful German-language site Filb.de:

(This update was originally part of the BW concept art update until I made it separate.)

Posters on the Japanese board 2ch.net have revealed that there is an early demo of Black and White out in Japan along with a pamphlet that shows the sprites of a few of the more-recently revealed Pokemon. The new demo shows a new bird-based Pokemon; it looks pigeon-like and has the same color scheme as Mamepato, so it is likely an evolution. There's also a second new Pokemon, Minezumi, that learns Super Fang, Hypnosis, Detect and Crunch and seems rodent-like, but the sprite is mostly obscured:

The pamphlet shows the black-and-white humanoid feminine Pokemon and the white Pokemon with a green aura from the Oha Suta trailer, as well as an in-game sprite of the Larvitar-like Pokemon whose figure was recently revealed. Thankfully, it looks less like Larvitar in-game than its figurine does. This means we know 28 new Pokemon from Black and White at this point, and 29 if the green bear figure is legit! Here are the new Pokemon sprites:

EDIT: We have also added a new Black and White Preview Video showing footage from the Pokemon Daisuki Club. This includes shots of the environment and several Pokemon battles with their normal music and sound effects. A short-lived image posted there also showed Sugimori art of the Larvitar-like Pokemon.

The first round of the GPCT has ended and the four characters going to the next round from this group are Cynthia, Ethan, Riley and Sabrina. Palmer and Dawn just missed the cut, while poor Charon came in dead last. The full results can be found here, and voting for the second round can be done here.

Scans from the August 2010 edition of Corocoro have leaked via 2ch, the same Japanese forum that provided images for the BW demo and pamphlet a few days ago. In addition to Sugimori art and confirmed names for five recently-revealed Pokemon, two new Pokemon are shown. One was revealed as a silhouette on this week's episode of Pokemon Sunday, while the other is an evolution necessary for in-game mechanics.

The new Pokemon, Wooguru, is a Normal/Flying-type eagle who weighs 41kg and is 1.5m tall. Its species is the Valor Pokemon and one of its abilities is Keen Eye; the other ability is new is strengthens the power of attacks while removing their secondary effects. It has a new attack that carries the opponent into the air on the first turn and drops them on the second.

Gochiruzeru, the Celestial Body Pokemon, is the gothic and feminine humanoid. She is a Psychic-type with the ability Frisk and a new attack that prevents the effects of items for five turns. Her counterpart is Rankurusu, the white Pokemon with the green aura. It is the Amplification Pokemon and has two abilities: one is Magic Guard, and the other prevents damage from weather conditions. Both of these Pokemon stand at 1.5m and 44kg; they are version exclusives.

The right page shows Kibago, the Tusk Pokemon, which is the green guy who has been compared to Larvitar. It is a Dragon-type who stands at 0.6m and weighs 18kg. It has two existing abilities, Rivalry and Mold Breaker, and learns a new attack that hits twice. Below Kibago is Koromori, the Bat Pokemon, who is Psychic/Flying-type that stands 0.4m and weighs 2.1kg. In addition to face that I wasn't expecting at ALL, it has Unaware and Klutz for abilities and a new flinch-inducing attack. On the bottom is the chipmunk-like Minezumi, the Lookout Pokemon, who is 0.5m tall and weights 11.6kg. It gets Keen Eye and Run Away for its abilities, so it is probably Isshu's Rattata archetype.

Another pair of page discuss the mechanics of triple battles. Since there are three Pokemon in a battle (left, middle and right), the left Pokemon cannot attack the right-most opponent and vice versa. There is a new ability, Telepathy, that also prevents damage from teammates, and an attack that also prevent damage from teammates for one turn.

The next set of pages, shown above, confirms Rankurusu and Gochiruzeru as version exclusives and mention and show two version-exclusive locations: White Forest and Black City for their respective versions. They are one location that change based on your version.

The next set of pages discuss some mechanic features involving the DS. You can use the DS's infrared to have battles and trades with up to four players, including swapping friend codes. A new feature connects your DS to other real-life players much like Wireless Adapter, and the DSi has a webcam feature that lets you see the people you battle over the internet.

The other new Pokemon is Mushaana, the evolution of Munna. Like Munna, Mushaana is a pure Psychic-type with Synchronize and Forewarn; it is 1.1m and 60.5kg and its species is the Trance Pokemon. Mushaana's Dream Smoke plays a major role in collecting Pokemon that aren't part of the Isshu Pokedex. Next to Mushaana is Makomto, a friend of Professor Aragari who gives you the C Gear, which has many of the new features described in this update. The next scan is shown below:

After obtaining Mushaana and the Dream Smoke, you gain access to the Pokemon Global Link, where you can upload your file to the Internet and either battle online or have your Pokemon battle in a dream against Pokemon from outside of Isshu. The World of Dreams has mini-games and Pokemon from outside of Isshu, which can be brought to your in-game file. The Global Link is shown next:

An event will be held throughout August on the Daisuki Fan Club website in which players can encounter any of the Eeveelutions in a dream and presumably bring them to Black and White when the games are released:

There's also three scans of new characters, one of whom is N, a character who was featured in the promotional trailers from Pokemon Sunday and Oha Suta. Shown before him are two childhood friends of the player character. The left one is a boy named Cheren and the other is a girl named Bell:

When you chose your starter, Bell and Cheren will select the other two, while N will challenge you throughout the game like a typical Rival. He has radical ideas for how humans and Pokemon should interact. In one of the screenshots, Bell is saying that the characters are on Route 1. The route numbers restarting is a first for a new Pokemon game, which symbolizes Isshu's distance from the other Regions.

Two new Pokemon, some new artwork, some confirmed names, and some new attacks, statistics, features and characters. Not a bad monthly feature.

Update: clear scans have emerged of the August Corocoro. Check the August 2010 Corocoro update below this one for more.

For those of you who aren't keeping track at home, there are 43 confirmed Isshu Pokemon so far. Here is a quick list of them all, including their names, types and origins if known, as well as the source(s) from which they were revealed:

While I'm at it, don't forget that you can check all the preview videos of Black and White on the Black and White Videos page as well.

The Psyfari Zone is going well and has expanded! There are now 65 different Pokemon you can catch, and more are on their way.

EDIT: Thanks to an update on the official Black and White site, we also have a few dozen more Screenshots and Promo Images from Black and White. There was a new video, too:

We're expecting a decent announcement from Pokemon Sunday tomorrow, so make sure to check back again for that and other updates.

In the meantime, don't forget you can find us on YouTube for early access to video updates, on Facebook for quick blurbs and other posts as well as news notifications, or subscribe to our RSS Feed for news information.

The second round of the GPCT has ended and the four characters going to the next round from this group are Lance, Blue, Steven and... Professor Oak! Giovanni and Misty just missed the cut, while the Navel Gym Leader from the anime, Danny, came in dead last. The full results can be found here, and voting for the third round can be done here.

Oha Suta showed some triple battle footage this morning featuring Gochiruzeru, the rock-ish Pokemon that was revealed next to her in a previous trailer, and a new pink heart-shaped Pokemon named Mamanbou. The rock-like Pokemon's name has been revealed as Gigaiasu. Credit goes to Filb.de for catching a screenshot:

Mamanbou is the 32nd officially confirmed Generation V Pokemon, with the authenticity of the green bear still in question. The previous list of Generation V's Pokemon has updated as a result.

Today's episode of Pokemon Sunday has revealed one "new" Pokemon: Bikutini, the previously unnamed Pokemon who appeared at the end of the Zoroark movie. We refrained from posting screenshots of this Pokemon because it was technically illegal, as cameras aren't allowed in Japanese movie theaters.

Now, however, we have its name and appearance on regular TV. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it is that Bikutini is #000 in the Isshu Pokedex. It will be available in Japan through a Wi-Fi event for a month, starting on the day BW are released in Japan. Players will need to receive the Liberty Ticket to access the Pokemon.

The third round of the GPCT has ended and the four characters going to the next round from this group are Red, Clair, Silver and Brock. Surprisingly, Bill and Nurse Joy were the highest-ranked characters who just missed the cut, while the Sinnoh Frontier Brain Argenta came in dead last. Flannery, who came in third overall in the first GPCT back in 2005, petered out at #8.

The full results can be found in this thread, and voting for the fourth round can be done here. This is the last week in this format, as next week visitors will only be able to vote for their one favorite out of four possible characters.

According to an Official Press Release this morning, another WiFi Event is starting this Saturday. Players of PAL and NTSC versions of HeartGold and SoulSilver (that is, North American, European, and Australian versions) will be able to download an Enigma Stone to their games to capture the other half of the Lati@s duo not normally available in game.

Next up, the Psyfari Zone has been updated with 35 new Pokemon, chosen based on the results of a quick poll on our Facebook page and a few random others. There are now 100 total Pokemon you may capture around the site!

Lastly, don't forget to vote in the GPCT before the end of the day on Saturday. The format of voting changes after this group ends, so make sure your favorites make it in to the next round!

Another new trailer for Black and White aired during Oha Suta today. The first section showed a bunch of previously-revealed Pokemon, some 3D models of Reshiram and Zekrom, and a bunch of previously-revealed characters. However, in this group were two members of Team Plasma, the newest villain team. There was also a "VS" screenshot against somebody named Aloe (Aroe in katakana). In the Generation IV games, only important characters like Gym Leaders or Elite Four got those, so it might be somebody noteworthy. It's also probably the series' first black character, discounting Rosie from Battle Revolution who was only black outside of Japan:

The second part of the trailer shows off the C-Gear item that Makomo gives you, including the four-person battle capability and a new feature called Hi-Link. It looks like the Hi-Link lets another player visit your game, sort of like the Animal Crossing series. A shot of the in-game map of Isshu is also shown:

During the third part of the trailer, something called "Pokemon Musical" is shown. Since only little girl players were shown, and you can dress up your Pokemon in this activity, a lot of people have assumed that these are the new equivalent of contests. Some promotional art for Pokemon Musical was shown that contains a new bird Pokemon. It looks kind of like a stork or a swan to me:

The trailer then moves onto battles, and a new Pokemon is shown right off the bat. The heroine is shown to release a Pokemon named Shikijika. It's a cute little baby deer. Surely people will start going "ZOMG STANTLER PRE-EVOLUTION" but I'd like to point out that a Stantler pre-evolution would probably have... you know, antlers.

Then the Dream World is shown off for a bit. The player is shown to be able to grow berries here, and there is footage of the player catching a dream Pikachu as well. It is officially confirmed that Pokemon from Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver can be transferred up to Black and White with the PokeShifter, and you play a little mini-game with the DS's touch screen to catch them:

At the very end of the trailer, the main characters are shown walking down a route. The male is shown walking and it looks pretty regular. Then the screen shifts to the female walking and the route takes on a very autumnal appearance. Do we finally get seasons?

We also get sneak peeks at four new trainer classes, including an American football player and a baker:

Finally, we see Minezumi's evolution, Miruhoggu, attacking in a wild double battle:

As always, thanks to those Japanese media watchhawks over at Filb.de for capturing this trailer! I've also added the three new Pokemon to our list of known Gen V Pokemon.

The fourth group of the GPCT has ended and the four characters going to the next round from this group are James, May, Jasmine and Morty. In the most WTF instance of this contest yet, Deliah Ketchum, a.k.a. Ash's Mom, came in fifth place and just missed the cut. (Oh trolls, I didn't know we were that important to you!) Coming in dead last for both this group and the entire first round of the contest was Pokemon Trozei's heroine Lucy Fleetfoot. Haters!! :( Also Lorelei, who came in fourth place in 2005's contest, bowed out at #10.

Now the Idol format of the contest is over. However, since the random assignment of the groups hurt some characters, we've decided to put four wildcards through to round two. These characters had the highest averages of the ones who did not advance out of round one and they are Giovanni, Misty, Bill and Nurse Joy. This means that the format for the next four weeks is a FIVE-WAY match in which the voters pick their ONE favorite to move on to the semifinals.

The full results can be found in this thread, and voting for the first group of round two can be done here. The five characters up for voting this week are Cynthia, Giovanni, Morty, Silver and Steven. Vote for your FAVORITE!

Some new Sugimori artwork has leaked. An image of Bikutini confirms that it is Psychic/Fire-type, its species is the Victory Pokemon (hence how Bikutini romanizes into "Victiny"), it is 0.4m tall and weighs 4kg, and also has a new ability. In addition to Bikutini and two of the new Pokemon from the last Oha Suta trailer (Shikijika the deer and the still-unnamed swan), there's also a new Bug-type that's probably the new early-game Bug-type that kind of sucks in battle. (Note: this is just speculation.)

Finally, some art of previously seen characters Aloe, Dento and Team Plasma are out as well. It seems Aloe is a woman based on her clothes, which weren't seen when she was revealed last week.

Update (8/4/10): Junichi Masuda's blog has confirmed that only Isshu Pokemon will be available in Black and White until the player earns the National Dex!

Let's start off with the rumor mill, then. There's an image currently going around claiming to be a scan from the September issue of Corocoro, showing Victiny, the sarcophagus, the heart-shaped fish (claiming it's Luvdisc's evolution), the first mole stage, the tarantula, a new Pokemon with a skull on its head and a Chimecho evolution. It's a little early for a Corocoro release, and the image isn't really in the Corocoro style. It also has a rather telling typo that puts Bikutini at less than 1lb. For these reasons, we're going to have to assume that this picture is fake.

Now, on to the real news. First off, you'll have noticed that if you haven't yet voted in the GPCT, there's a convenient box on the top of the page to allow you to cast your vote without having to wander over to the voting page.

Up next, you'll notice that our news posts now have a "Tweet It" button by the Facebook links. This new Twitter integration allows you to send a tweet - in the format of "@psypoke [article title] - [link to article]" right from our site. You'll have to authorize the application the first time you use it, of course, but after that it's a one-click process!

And now, the Black and White news. The other day I copied Frost's list of BW Pokemon to a Known Pokemon page for easy tracking of what we know so far.

The official Japanese site has also now posted a copy of the video shown on Oha Suta the other day. I've added that to our YouTube channel as well for your convenience and discussion.

The video shows all the things discussed in the earlier news post. We neglected to previously mention what appears to be a possible tag-team mode for 3-on-3 battles, where a rotating platform seems to determine which of your 3 Pokemon is in the front line.

When the real Corocoro scans leak (which should be in a few days), we'll make sure to let you know. Hopefully this fake one isn't too far off from the real deal.

The official Nintendo of Japan site has posted a virtual tour of the Isshu region via the world map. After loading the flash video here, skip the intro and click the White button just above the Information bar at the bottom. Once loaded, you can click and drag to move around the map, and mouse over certain locations for screenshots.

Next up, the Pokemon Searcher bus tours that have kicked off have revealed some more new Pokemon, and more details about those we already know.

Emonga species is the Flying Squirrel Pokemon, and it is an Electric/Flying-type. It stands 0.4m tall, weighs in at 5.0kg, and its ability is Static. Gigaiasu is pure Rock-type, 1.7m tall and weighs 260kg. Its ability is Sturdy and its species is the High-Pressure Pokemon.

Darumakka is a small Pokemon and only a screenshot of its exists so far. It is likely the pre-evolution of Hihidaruma, since they both contain the word "Daruma" and resemble daruma dolls. In another screenshot, Darumakka is shown with Grass-type for which we have no other information a fake Pokemon. Finally, Basurao is a Water-type fish who learns Aqua Jet and Uproar. The picture above is low quality, but it's the only glimpse of this Pokemon so far.

Shikijika is confirmed to be Normal/Grass-type. It is also supposed to change colors with the seasons: the pink form we've seen before is its Spring form; its Summer form is green, the Autumn form is Orange and Winter colors are brown.

One more Pokemon is rumored to be seen in the demo, but information is currently sparse.

We've also got a couple more videos for you.A standard 30-second spot for the Best Wishes anime features a little voice acting of scenes we've previously seen.

A new 60-second trailer showcases some of the connectivity features, including battling and the DSi's use of camera and microphone.

Lastly, it has been brought to my attention that two other videos I had originally included in this update as a third video, showcasing Shikijika and the Musical Contests, were not originally the raw AVI files I found amidst the searcher BW pictures, but instead were actually provided by Legendary Pokemon. I sincerely apologize both to them and to our visitors for the fact that I ended up posting something they worked hard to provide without giving them their due credit. Though use of their work in a video was unintentional, I do not believe my ignorance to the origin of the clips to be a valid excuse, and the video has been removed from here and our YouTube channel. I urge you all to check out their original video for this content instead.

Expect more updates to this post as more information from the BW Searcher surfaces.

September 2010's Corocoro is said to have a lot of information about Black and White, and it's starting to leak today because the issue is being released earlier than usual on August 11. So far, we don't have much in the terms of new information, but keep your eye on this spot as more pictures leak.

So far, we have a picture of Shikijika's three season forms. The regular Sugimori is pink, for the spring. The three shown here, from right to left, are green for summer, orange for autumn and brown for winter. Shikijika's species is the Season Pokemon, it is 0.6m tall and weighs 19.5kg, and its abilities are Chlorophyll or a new one.

Also, a picture of Aloe. It's the same Sugimori art we've seen before, but we now know she is the Gym Leader of "Shippou City." Some early reports are naming her as the Grass-type Leader. We've also learned that Dento is the first Gym Leader, of Sanyo City, and that three characters (you, Belle and Cheren) begin in Kanoko Town, while Team Plasma is first encountered in Karakusa Town.

Moguryuu, the Mole Pokemon, is the mole we saw from behind on Oha Suta a long time ago. He is a Ground-type with two new abilities related to sand, and he is 0.3m tall and weighs 8.5kg.

Mamanbou leaked in some Oha Suta gameplay footage a couple of weeks ago. The Nursing Pokemon is a pure Water-type who stands at 1.2m and weighs 31.6kg. One of its abilities is Hydration, while the other is new.

Kurumiru is the new caterpillar Pokemon whose Sugimori art leaked last week. Its species is the Sewing Pokemon, and it is a Grass/Bug-type who stands 0.3m tall and weighs 2.5kg. Its abilities are Swarm or Chlorophyll, so it seems like a pretty regular early-game Bug-type to me.

Also Swanna (pronounced Swan-a) is the name of the new swan who was shown in the latest Oha Suta trailer. The Swan species Pokemon is a Water/Flying-type whose abilities or either Keen Eye or Mamepato's new ability. She weighs 24.2kg and is 1.3m tall. Miruhoggu is the evolution of Minezumi, as shown at the end of the same Oha Suta trailer. The Precaution Pokemon is a Normal-type who stands at 1.1m and weighs 27kg; its abilities are Keen Eye or Illuminate.

All of the new Pokemon were shown on a page together. Note that all of these have been seen before through various leaks, so none are technically "new."

Some other tidbits include: there are rotating platforms available in some 3-on-3 battles, adding a dynamic of having to predict which Pokemon you'll be attacking and defending against. Also, once players acquire a certain key item, they can agree to allow the use of items in a Wi-fi battle. Finally, the Battle Subway is a new spin on the Battle Tower in which you can fight seven consecutive battles.

The Psydex has been updated with this information, as well as our lists of new Pokemon.

Finally, Pokemon Sunday showed a small clip of footage of battling Bikutini, including a new Berry-destroying attack:

Because we added voting to the top of the main page, this was by far the most successful round of any of our voting competitions, clocking in nearly as many votes as the entirety of Psypoke Idol 2 in one week.

You can discuss the contest in the thread on our forums, and voting for the second group of round two is now underway. This week, we have Blue, Brock, Ethan, James and Misty up for voting. Vote for your FAVORITE!

This morning more scans of the September issue of Corocoro are coming out, as well as more information from the BW Searcher.

The Searcher BW tour continues. Another Pokemon, Wakoishi, is supposedly included. Since this one has shown up much later than the others, it's hard to say for certain whether the image currently going around is real or not.

The in-game seasons in Black and White have been shown to affect the terrain. Certain parts of the world will only be accessible in certain seasons; the demo shows a certain cliff that cannot be scaled, except for in winter when a snow drift provides a ramp up to the next level.

Full scans of 20 pages have been leaked onto 2ch now.

The covers of the issue show larger pictures of the two different box arts available for each version. The newer art is a sort of slip-cover that encloses the actual game packaging. Both feature the legendary of choice in lit up tails, and a sort of breakaway effect on the background color of the case.

Players who have the Victory Ticket can encounter a Bikutini while exploring the lighthouse on Liberty Garden Island. It knows Quick Attack, Endure, Confusion, and a new Fire-type attack called "Complete Burn" or "Incinerate" depending on how you want to translate it. This new move burns the held Berry of an opposing Pokemon, rendering it unusable.

The Manaphy being given away at Japanese McDonald's is discussed. See the Events List for info on the event itself.The player can attempt to capture Bikutini until successful; it will return in the event of an accidental KO.Swanna has a new attack which has varying accuracy, depending on the weather.The Sturdy ability is now more useful - no move is able to one-hit-KO a Pokemon with this ability, much like how Focus Sash works.

Moguryuu has two new abilities and a new attack.Kurumiru has a new attack which can hit two targets simultaneously.Mamanbou has a new ability that heals the status conditions of other Pokemon on the team. The scan says nothing either way about any potential relation to Luvdisc.Seasons (which last for one real-world month) play a role in what Pokemon can be found in the wild. Looks like we'll have to write up a new Capture Mechanics Guide.Seasons also affect the terrain, allowing or denying access to various locations, such as snow drifts in winter serving as ramps, as seen above.

The PokeShifter works like the PalPark. It is only available after the Elite Four (and presumably National Dex), and requires two DS systems to use. The player uses a slingshot to recapture the Pokemon transferred over from the Generation IV game.The player may encounter two wild Pokemon simultaneously in a Wild Double Battle.The player, Belle, and Cheren all live in Kanokota Town.You first encounter Team Plasma in Karakusa Town. As a team, they seem to empathize with Pokemon and talk about "liberating" them.

Dento is the first Gym Leader of the games, found in Sanyo City.Aloe is the second Gym Leader, residing in Shippou City. The city has some ancient traditions, a museum and a old railway system.Both of these Leaders will quiz the player before battling them.There are still 8 badges to collect, and as mentioned elsewhere an Elite Four.TMs are no longer one-time-use items; they can be reused on multiple Pokemon.

Rotating 3-on-3 battles are a new mode where you must carefully chose which of your 3 active Pokemon you want on the front line to do the attacking and defending. Carefully calculating which of your opponent's Pokemon you'll be actually attacking during a turn further compounds the franchise's Rock-Paper-Scissors routes. This is in addition to the freely-rotating form of regular 3-on-3 battles.The Miracle Shooter is an optional part of WiFi battles that allows the use of items in battle.The Battle Subway is the new chain-of-battles system. You fight 7 trainers in a row to earn battle points, which can be traded in for prizes. Single and Double modes are available; no word on Triple battles being a part of this mode. All opposing Pokemon are level 50.

A special building will hold the Musical Contests.A special item will hold the costumes and accessories for the contests.If a Pokemon performs well, members of the audience may give you gifts.When using the High Link, players may receive special bonuses. Any other trainers in the area who are using their C-Gear at the time may also receive these bonuses, such as extra Exp. Points or reduced prices on items in PokeMarts. You can even trade abilities with other players.Makomo lives in Sanyou City.

Pokemon found in the dream world can have unique properties, such as new abilities. The example given here is that Vaporeon can gain the Hydration ability.The dream world is also the only way to obtain Berries.You can trade items with players via the High Link.Using the Global Link, players can download new skins for the C-Gear and the PokeDex, and new music for the Musical Contests.

An advertisement for the new anime season, Best Wishes, shows a lot of what we've seen in trailers. Dento is really fulfilling the Brock role as the first Gym Leader in the region, who then abandons his duties as such in order to follow Ash around on his journeys.There's also a sticker page where the Pokemon stickers from elsewhere in the magazine can be placed.

You can find the first half of the BW Searcher info and pictures here, and the first half of the September Corocoro leaks here.

Likely the last of the new Pokemon in the BW Searcher bus tour demo has been revealed. Tabunne is a Normal-type bunny, since you can't have a new Pokemon game without a token bunny Pokemon, and it knows the moves Growl, Helping Hand and Double Slap in the demo. Seen below is also a clearer image of Basurao, the Water-type fish who knows Aqua Jet, Headbutt and Uproar. Also, Darumakka has arms and legs!

Also, it seems that the Grass-type shown in a picture with Darumakka is fake. Good thing we didn't pay much attention to it beyond a picture.

As usual, I've updated my previous news update that lists the the Generation V Pokemon, and Jiggz will likely do the same for the page in our BW section soon.

The official Japanese BW site has updated again with new short teaser clips, as well as a new trailer.

The new series of short teaser clips show off a few more battle scenes. One scene also shows the new effect of the Sturdy Ability - a move that would have been a one-hit KO does not knock Gigaiasu out. 3-on-3 battles, including a rotating battle, are shown as well.

Also included are clips of the High Link - the feature that allows you to connect directly into a friend's game. The PokeShifter, which requires a second DS to import your Generation IV Pokemon, is a simple slingshot type game.

The third of the "special trailers" shows the Global Link feature - connectivity to the internet. Using the Global Link, players can capture Pokemon in the Dream World. These Pokemon have some unique properties as well, like new Abilities. The player can also use the Global Link to battle against others all over the world.

You can discuss the contest in the thread on our forums, and voting for the third group of round two is now underway. This week, we have Bill, May, Professor Oak, Red and Riley up for voting. Vote for your FAVORITE!

A Japanese Blog has posted some pictures and video taken from the Yokohama Pokemon Center. They show Tabunne from a previous leak, as well as two new Pokemon. The pictures are rather low quality, so it's hard to tell what we're actually looking at.

In addition to this, Frost has also provided an update to the TCG with the HGSS Undaunted set.

A few other changes you may have noticed - the US release dates for Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs and PokePark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure were posted the other day - October 4th and November 1st, respectively.

Lastly, because the Global Link will be launching soon, the official Pokemon GTS website will be closing on September 14th. The GTS itself will remain functional for all Gen IV games, of course.

At last, the Pokemon first seen as a figurine has been confirmed, though it looks a bit different than the figurine had implied. To be fair, so did Kibago.

Yanappu is a Grass Monkey, has Gluttony, stands at 0.6m tall and weighs in at 10.5kg.

In addition to this, there have been other changes since the last news post.

The official site for the BW anime has updated with a character profile for Shooti, a Pokemon Photographer from Kanoko Town, the hometown of the player character in Black and White. A promotional trailer also showed new nurse and police officer designs.

Our Black and White section is currently being overhauled to be a better collection of what we know so far. Expect many more changes to that part of the site in the coming days.

The next video in our HGSS series has also been added, Celadon City Gym:

And, don't forget to vote in this week's round of the GPCT! Voting for the current round ends in just under 4 hours.

Finally, we are continuing to expand our efforts in social media. You'll notice there are now links to our Facebook and Twitter pages accompanying the RSS feed icon at the top of the main page. We encourage you to take advantage of both of these. The Facebook page includes reminders about ongoing contests and other quick notes from the staff. The Twitter account can be used to let you know when a news update is posted to the site - it automatically updates the moment we post any news - and also to further interact with the staff.

You'll also notice a new button next to the Facebook Share button on our news posts. If you have a Twitter account of your own, you can authorize our Twitter app to allow you to send a tweet about any of our news updates. After authorizing the app (a link will open to Twitter where you have to confirm), the Log In button will be replaced with two buttons - Tweet and Log Out. Clicking the Tweet button will update your Twitter with the title and link to the news post you were viewing.

And, don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for videos from Pokemon Sunday and HeartGold and SoulSilver.

Voting for the third group of round two has concluded, and, to nobody's surprise, Red has crushed his opposition (Riley, May, Oak and Bill) to advance to the semifinals. In the most popular round of voting yet, Red took an early lead and never looked back, nearly hitting 50%. Bill, meanwhile, made Morty look like a powerhouse:

You can discuss the contest in the thread on our forums, and voting for the fourth and final group of round two is now underway. This week, we have Clair, Jasmine, Lance, Nurse Joy and Sabrina up for voting. Vote for your FAVORITE!

It's official - Pokemon Black and White are already record breakers. Presales for the two games have already broken the one million mark, making it the fastest-selling game in the history of the DS system. Nintendo expects that by the time the game is actually released to its players, 1.5 million copies will have been preordered. That's not even counting those who will buy an unreserved copy on launch day.

The games will be released in just under 4 weeks time in Japan, with English versions expected to follow next Spring. Many have expressed concern over the new (or rather, reset) direction the series is taking with the latest installments, but the sales figures don't lie - fan expectations are high.

So do you plan to preorder yourself, pick the games up on launch day, or wait and see before you buy? Or, are you entirely uninterested in Gen V? Let us know in the comments, and keep checking back for more as the countdown to Black and White continues!

The first episode of the new anime series, Pokemon BW (Best Wishes) will air on September 23rd, the week after Pokemon Black and White hit stores.

The official site for the series sheds some light on what we can expect to see. Much like Black and White are a revitalized beginning for the games, Pokemon Best Wishes! is meant to be a fresh start for the anime as well.

Ash and Pikachu move on to the Isshu Region to continue their quest to become the greatest. They're a long way from home and will make several new friends on their journey.

Little is known about exactly who Iris is, but she is described as the "action girl" of the series with a penchant for climbing trees with her Kibago.

Dento is the first Gym Leader of the Isshu region, and an expert on determining if a Pokemon and their Trainer are working together as an effective team. Dento joins Ash on his journey and leaves his Gym behind (effectively dropping him into the Brock archetype). It has now been officially confirmed that Dento will have a Yanappu.

Shooti is a Pokemon Photographer who will be chronicling his journey throughout Isshu. He comes from the starting town in Black and White. He is a strong and driven trainer seeking to win the Isshu championship, dropping him nicely into the rival role.

Lastly, the official site also updated with two new teasers for the series, which we've reproduced here for your convenience. They are largely the same, though one is twice the length of the other and adds a little more content.

UPDATE: At the request of a YouTube subscriber, I've also gone ahead and compiled the 21 different 5-second teaser clips into the second video above. A few of them were already featured in another of our videos, but they should look a little smoother now.

Are you excited about the new anime series? What do you think of the fact that Ash appears to be the only human carryover (though it looks like Professor Oak will at least make a cameo)? Do you think rebooting the anime at the same time as the games is a good idea for the series, or is this "breathing new life" approach the worst idea ever? Let us know!

Sorry for not including a Pokemon Sunday update at the usual time, but I've now moved back to campus for the start of fall semester, which means that I'm now stuck on an internet connection that can't hold a candle to the $20/month service back home. As such, I'm now unable to record Pokemon Sunday episodes.

Thankfully, there wasn't much of an announcement on today's episode. The Battle Subway was shown a bit, and it was revealed that the Master of the Subway will challenge your character if you manage to win all your matches.

As for the GPCT, the final group of Round 2 has ended. After over 17,000 votes, Lance advances with not only the highest percentage of all characters in the round, but also the most significant lead over his competitors. Red was second in this respect with 48.1% of his group and a 27.06% lead. The final results for the group are:

Sorry for being a little quiet lately; I'm still settling into my apartment. On to the news.

First off, a small scan from the October 2010 Corocoro Special has been leaked via 2ch and Twitter. The scan shows something called Combination Attacks, which can be used in the triple battles. By executing certain attacks in the correct order, there will be additional effects on the battle. The scan shows the use of the starters' unique attacks.

Fire and Water makes a lucky rainbow to boost additional effects from your Pokemon's attacks. Water and Grass trap your opponent in a wetland, reducing their speed. Grass and Fire results in a firestorm that will affect the battlefield.

Next up, the official Pokemon site has announced a new sweepstakes. Only US players may enter. The contest runs until September 19th, with 3 drawings for winners (one per week). Each week, there will be 101 winners. The grand prize each week is a DSi XL, HeartGold and SoulSilver, 36 HGSS Undaunted boosters, 3 TCG collector tins with Entei, Raikou, and Suicune, and a pair of strategy guides. 100 runners-up each week will also receive one of the 3 TCG tins.

Lastly, the "Everybody's Nintendo Channel" on Japanese Wii consoles is showing a bunch of new Black and White ads. There are several things worth noting; a fair bit of new footage, the fact that Iris (from the BW anime) can be seen, as well as Dento's Gym.

Jesse, James, and Meowth are back with a new style and a new mission - take over the Isshu region. Of course in true Team Rocket fashion, they're unlikely to have much of a plan to carry out Giovanni's orders. Giovanni himself also sports a new character design, so he may have a bit more of a screen presence in the new series.

Those of you interested in competitive battling may remember that we recently partnered with Zelda Informer because of their Pokemon tournament. You can read more about the tournament and sign up via the above link to their Pokemon forum. A quick overview of the tournament:

The League currently has eight Gym Leaders for participants to challenge for their badges. Once participants win all eight, they have the chance to challenge the Elite Four. If they're able to defeat all of the Elites, they will either become the first Champion or get to challenge the current Champion. If they are able to defeat the Champion, they will take over the roll as Champion. Defeated Champions return to the beginning of the Elite Four Challenge.

So, what do you think of Team Rocket's new black uniforms? And what about Giovanni's new military-inspired look? Should Giovanni be a more prominent character in the anime? And are you interested in competitive battling? Going to sign up for Zelda Informer's tournament?

Let's start off with the facts: the final HGSS TCG set will be called HS Triumphant; featuring more than 100 cards from the Japanese Lost Link and Clash at the Summit Sets, it will be available in stores on November 3rd.

Next, voting for the first one-on-one match of GPCT2's third round has concluded and, much like at the end of Generation I's games, Red has defeated Blue to advance to the finals. Red garnered 71.1% (11585 votes) of the total compared to Blue's 28.88% (4706 votes). This week's seminfinal match is Lance vs. Cynthia, and the winner will face Red in the final match next week.

On to some rumors. As you know, we generally avoid posting rumors and speculation on the main page. Not too long ago, pictures of alleged evolutions for the Black and White starters hit 2ch, and the rumors have been flying ever since. However, it's now been suggested that these evolutions are indeed credible.

A few different sources are reporting these pictures as legitimate. Most notably would be Pokexperto, whose source has a strong track record with Black and White info leaks. Given that, we'll go ahead and post them.

The following has NOT been confirmed by any official sources. It should be treated as rumor only.

Once again, we stress that these evolutions are only rumored.

In addition to these evolution rumors, there is also an image going around claiming that Yanappu is part of a trio of monkey Pokemon meant to demonstrate the new Triple Battles.

The blue form of Yanappu is supposed to be a Water-type called Hiyappu, and an unseen Fire-type variant called Baoppu would round out the trio of Triple Battle Pokemon featuring the new Acrobat attack.

While this image is said to be taken from the back of the Black and White game box, we stress again that these other Yanappu-like Pokemon are not completely confirmed yet.

In other Black and White news, I have reformatted our FAQs page for the games to answer some more questions. If you have other questions that you think should be included, I'm collecting a list of them in our forums, as it's difficult to make up questions when I already have the answers.

Finally, on Monday, September 6, a promo for a BW special aired that had a small picture of new cat Pokemon in the background. It's shown next to Yanappu here:

Tabunne, the rabbit-based Pokemon from the BW demo tours that was reported previously, also appears elsewhere in the background, confirming it as real.

The Best Wishes site has updated with another character profile. Don George leads a Battle Club which is a sort of training grounds. He was originally seen in the leaked concept art.

The next TCG set, HS Triumphant, will drop several of the Japanese cards and only release 102 cards total in the US.

Next, a mini-serial on Black and White coming out in Japan is being leaked onto 2ch. Some of the highlights include a bunch of pictures of Pokemon, some of which may be as-of-yet unseen.The cover also proclaims that the games will be taking place in New York.There is also supposed to be an interview with Sugimori, in which he discusses the starter's evolutions; basing their general designs on Western, Chinese, and Japanese art. He also mentions that the starters should grow in unexpected ways, and specifically discusses Mijumaru's evolution being a cross between an otter and a sea lion, with its shell becoming more like a sword. This description coincides with the images seen earlier. Obviously, it's not an official confirmation and we remind our visitors to still consider them rumors at best.Also of note, the many other designers of the Pokemon for the games discussed how they treated Black and White as a new beginning for the series. Because of this, they were no longer concerned with attempting to make the Pokemon unlike any previous ones, and were willing to reuse inspirations, such as creating a new "dog Pokemon" or "cat Pokemon" for these games.

As the magazine is just coming out, information is still a little sparse, so it should be taken with a gain of salt. Hopefully there will be more solid info out there tomorrow afternoon when I get out of class.

Pokemon Black and White were also honored with Famitsu's rare perfect score, making them the 15th game in the last 12 years to achieve this.

What do you think of Black and White's popularity before the release - a perfect score and record breaking presales? Does the description offered by Sugimori make the rumored starter evolutions more believable to you, or do you think they fit even less in light of the new information?

Among all the information from official sources, like the special serial that was just leaked, we also have another set of highly credible, though not official, rumors. From the same source as the starter evolution pictures, Pokexperto, a long list of Pokemon from Black and White have been revealed.

Pokexperto had reported a total 156 Pokemon in Isshu a while ago, and it's now substantially more credible. They recently posted a new list detailing some of the games' legendaries. Given an ever-increasing track record, we're opting to post an updated list of Black and White Pokemon.

The list is not complete, but in the spirit of Black and White being new adventures, we'll collapse the list for those who would prefer a surprise. Click Here to expand it.

Of course, the list hasn't been confirmed by any official sources, but we believe it to be credible enough. With the release only 7 days away, we'll have a complete list imported into the Psydex soon, but if you'd like a sneak preview, this list should do nicely.

So, do you think the Pokemon sound interesting? There are still several others to be revealed - what would you like to see?

Just a week before the release of the games, October's copy of Corocoro has fully leaked on 2ch.

On the first pages, we see a member of Team Plasma named Geechisu, whom you meet in Garaku Town. We also learn that N has the cat Pokemon pictured next to him.

Next up we have Yanappu, who had been revealed previously on Pokemon Sunday. His species is the "Grass Monkey" and he weighs 10.5kg and stands at 0.6m. His new counterparts are Fire-type Baoppu, the "High Temperature" Pokemon, and Water-type Hiyappu, the "Wave Splash" Pokemon, who appears from behind in BW's box art. Baoppu is 0.6m tall and weighs 11kg, while Hiyappu is 0.6m and 13.5kg. Each of these is a pure member of their respective typings and has Gluttony. Also, Emonga and Victiny appear, but the only new piece of information is that they both get new attacks.

Next, we've seen several of the Pokemon from these two pages in previous leaks. Basurao is the Water-type fish from the BW Demo Tour, and it has two forms: one red and one blue. Known as the "Violent" Pokemon, its abilities are Reckless and Adaptability. The new cat Pokemon, Choroneko, who appeared in the background of a BW Preview commercial, is the "Bad Cat" Pokemon and is Dark-type. Its abilities are Limber and Unburden. Next to it is a completely new dog Pokemon, Yorterri, which is a reference to the York Terrier. It is the "Puppy" Pokemon, a Normal-type with Pickup.

On the opposite page, we have four Pokemon who were revealed ages ago in a trailer aired during Ota Suta. First up is Desukaan, the "Coffin" Pokemon, who is a Ghost-type with a new ability. Below it is Ononokusu, the "Chin Horn" Pokemon, who is a Dragon-type with Rivalry and Mold Breaker. Next is Denchura, the "Electric Spider" Pokemon, who is Bug/Electric-type (editorial comment: AWESOME!) and gets Compoundeyes and a new ability. Finally, we have Doryuuzu, the "Deep Earth" Pokemon, who is a Ground/Steel-type and gets two new abilities. It is Moguryuu's evolution, just to remind you all.

On the next page, we see a new bull Pokemon, Buffalon, the "Headbutt Cow" Pokemon. It seems to fit with the idea that the games will have some American-influenced designs, such as Wooguru, since it has an afro. It is a Normal-type who gets Reckless and a new ability. Next is a small Rock-type, Dangoro; it is the "Mantle" Pokemon and gets Sturdy as its ability. Mebukijika, Shikijika's evolution, is the "Season" Pokemon. It retains Shikijika's Normal/Grass-type and abilities: one is Chlorophyll and the other is new.

On the opposite page we see the previously-revealed Tabunne, who is the "Healing" Pokemon. It is a Normal-type with two new abilities. Next is Monmen, the Grass-type "Cotton Ball" Pokemon, who also gets two abilities. Churine, the "Root" Pokemon, is another Grass-type who has Chlorophyll and Own Tempo. Monmen is exclusive to Black, while Churine is only found in White. Finally, the Pokeball on the bottom of the page is Tamagetake, the "Mushroom" Pokemon, who is a Grass/Poison-type with Effect Spore.

Next, we see the middle evolutions of the Starter trio. Tsutaaja becomes Jyanobii, the "Grass Snake" Pokemon, who is a pure Grass-type; it is 0.8m tall and weighs 16kg. Pokabu becomes Chaobuu, the "Fire Pig" Pokemon, is a Fire/Fighting-type who is 1m tall and weighs 55.5kg. (Editorial comment: Not that type for the Fire Starter AGAIN!) Finally, Mijumaru becomes Futachimaru, the "Meditation" Pokemon, who is pure Water-type, stands at 0.8m and weighs 24.5kg. All three have the typical starter abilities: Overgrow, Blaze and Torrent. Reshiram and Zekrom also have signature attacks, Cross Thunder and Cross Fire, that get stronger when used together. This page also confirms that the starter evolutions previously posted are real.

Finally, it turns out that Dento is only one of THREE Gym Leaders for Sanyou City, and the one you battle depends on your Starter, as you will battle the one with the type advantage. Dento's Fire-type counterpart is Poddo and his Water-type equivalent is Kon, and they each use their respective elemental monkey. Since Dento is the true Grass-type Gym Leader, previous reports of Aloe being one were mistaken. Corocoro implies that she is actually a Normal-type Gym Leader.

The last few pages just give some basic information about event Pokemon and the Dream World. Zoroa is obtained in Hiun City while Zoroark is found in Lost Forest when the movie 13 Pokemon have been transferred. Hiun is also where communication is enabled with the Gen IV titles, at which point you can transfer Pokemon with the Pokeshifter mini-game.

The Dream World is accessed via PC, and you play mini-games there. If you do well at them, you can bring the Dream World's Pokemon back to BW with you. Aerodactyl, Lotad and Magikarp are pictured as examples of terrain-specific Pokemon in the Dream World, as the latter two are in ponds while Aerodactyl is in the sky. Also, it turns out that you don't need to catch Munna to access the Dream World - Makomo lends you her own.

That's it for this month's Corocoro. Junichi Masuda appeared on the final episode of Pokemon Sunday before the games' release. He confirmed much of the information we see here from Corocoro.

Not to detract from the Corocoro Leaks seen below, but there has been some more news.

First off, the semifinals for the GPCT are over, as you should have noticed the ability to vote in the finals - Lance vs. Red. Lance had 8221 votes to Cynthia's 7806. Very close call indeed, and this was the only match in which a character gained a lead and lost it, as Cynthia was winning for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon. Voting for this final round lasts the remainder of the week.

Next up, there have been some updates to the official Japanese site for Pokemon Black and White. Videos seen earlier as previews on the Everyone's Nintendo Channel are now on the site; you can find them in an older update here.

The official site also added information on a new poll that will begin when Black and White launch in 4 days. From the launch on the 18th until November 1st, users can vote for a Pokemon to appear in the Dream World within the Global Link. The winning Pokemon will then be available from November 5th until the end of January.

With less than 4 days remaining, there's still so much to see about Black and White. What are you most looking forward to? What are you really hoping to see? Keep checking back as we expand our Black and White section and add all the information to the Psydex when the games release!

BW is out in Japan and the information is spilling across the Internets. First and foremost, the Pokemon. The rumored starter evolutions ARE LEGITIMATE. There are NO Isshu Pokemon that are related to pre-existing Pokemon. Yes, that means Buffalon and Tauros, Mamanbou and Luvdisc and whatever else ARE NOT connected.

Pokemon with alternate forms include Kenhorou, Basurao, Darumakka, Hihidaruma, Purumiru, its evolution, and apparently one of the event Legendaries. Click here for the list.

Tsutaaja evolves into Jyanobii at Level 17, who evolves into Jyarohda at Level 36.

The event Zoroa starts at Level 10. It evolves into Zoroark at Level 30.

Giga Drain has been changed from 60 Power to 75 Power.

There are only eight PC boxes to start. It's unknown if you can get more later in the game.

Belle starts with the Starter who is weak against your own. She'll catch a Yorterri before your second match against her.

Makomo asks you to get Munna from an abandoned lot. Later on, you can get one of the Monkey Trio from the same lot.

The HMs in BW are Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength, Waterfall and Dive. The TMs have been changed since DP's set, but there's still over fifty.

There are eight Gyms. The first is Grass/Fire/Water depending on your Starter as previously reported. Aloe is still the second Gym Leader and her type is still Normal-type. The other Gyms are, in order, Bug, Electric, Ground, Flying, Ice and Dragon. The eighth Gym Leader changes depending on your version. Iris from the anime is the eighth Gym Leader in White, while an older man named Shana is the eighth in Black.

Thank you all for bearing with us during our recent server issues. I'm happy to report that the server is much more stable now - still not 100%, but a vast improvement. Many thanks to our tech support guys for handling that, and I hope we don't give them a heart attack this weekend.

We're not the only ones who have been experiencing more traffic than expected, either. Nintendo's Global Link actually had to close down shorty after opening because of all the players trying to use it. If that seems absurd, bear in mind that after two days, there were 2.63 million copies of Black and White sold in Japan (and also imported elsewhere). That's over 1 million more sold than the Diamond and Pearl launch, for reference.

As for us and our site, we've been busy. First off, the Great Pokemon Character Tournament has finally come to a close. In the final battle between Lance and Red, who will emerge as the victor? Find out for yourself!

We've also continued working on combing through the vast amount of information we've collected from these new games. The Psydex is making excellent progress. We hope to have the Locations data sorted out and added soon. Although the Psydex still lists Rotom's appliance forms as Ghost/Electric, they are now Electric/Fire (Heat), Electric/Grass (Mow), Electric/Flying (Fan), Electric/Water (Wash) and Electric/Ice (Frost) Pokemon in BW.

The TechDex has also been updated accordingly, with all the new attacks seen in Black and White. General descriptions of the new attacks have been added, but keep in mind that these are tentative and might change as the moves are tested. Also, a list of older moves that have changed can be found here.

One of the big changes is that TMs no longer break after a single use, so having a TM/HM List is more useful than ever!

We'll continue working hard over the next few days to get the rest of the data we have into the site, and also to write up guides and other content (which is not an easy thing to do when playing in a foreign language!).

In the event of further server troubles, you can always check in with us via Facebook and Twitter.

Much of what we've been up to has been behind-the-scenes sort of work. If you've been poking around the site for the past week, you've probably yalready noticed some of the changes. If you haven't seen them, here's a quick overview of the big changes in the last several days:

First off, Black and White are still going strong in Japan, having nearly 3.4 million copies since their release. The games are, by all accounts, a huge success.

Next up, a 14th Pokemon movie has been announced. It's the first of what will likely be many done in the new Best Wishes! series. You can see the official trailer here.

The last bit of major news is that the once-broken Global Link is now up and running again, but only for users of Black and White, and only for an hour a day per unique game. This is to help with the massive server load that originally brought the website down when it launched.

As for us, Frost has been exceptionally busy. He's filled in translations (which may change with official translations pending) for Abilities, as well as descriptions of what they actually do. I've also restyled the Dream World abilities to stand out a little more, and sort differently for readability. See for yourself.

Now that some testing has been performed on existing and new attacks in Black and White, some information in the TechDex has been updated. One important change is that Selfdestruct and Explosion no longer halve the target's Defense when used, meaning that the moves are essentially half as powerful as in previous games. Tail Glow also boosts Special Attack by THREE stages now, which is good news for Manaphy and Volbeat.

Our biggest development, however, is that in addition to our video guides to Black and White, Frost has also begun writing up an in-depth Walkthrough for the games.

There's a Mew Event for HeartGold and SoulSilver that begins tomorrow. The Events List itself was also becoming rather convoluted, so I've rearranged things to be easier to read, and to allow us to establish a catalog of past events as well.

It was also pointed out to me that while most of those Events require the Mystery Gift these days, we didn't have a single source of information on what that actually is, so that's been added too.

The Psydex has been one of the two major projects lately. With all the new abilities and other new mechanics, our information on Type and Abilities was getting a little cumbersome. You'll find that things are much neater now. Hopefully this makes the information easier to read, especially in cases like Rotom and the complete change of types its alternate formes have undergone.

In addition to that, the data for standard in-game wild encounters has been added to the Psydex, meaning most locations are now listed.

Because that location data includes the Gen I-IV Pokemon found after the Elite Four, a page containing Gen I-IV Pokemon in BW has also been started. This list is based on a single set of data, however, and will likely grow as more data is processed.

In a similar vein, this new data has resulted in the Version Exclusives page updating itself with more Pokemon. One big change is that Monmen and Churine aren't listed, because while not found in the wild in one game, they each have an in-game trade available, making them not really exclusive.

Do you like what you see of Black and White so far? Are you playing along on an import copy, and are you enjoying it? On a personal note, I'm finding these games to be far more fun than Gen III or Gen IV, and can't wait to get an English copy in a few months. How about you?

First off, thank you all for the feedback on the change in how we're displaying type information in the Psydex. We're currently working on a way to reconcile the ease-of-use of the old system for most Pokemon with the new way's ease-of-use when it comes to more complicated type/ability combos. More on that soon.

Of course, we've also been busy with other things. Changes made over the last week and a half include:A new Generic Capture Mechanics Guide in the PsyLab to help explain not only what's going on when you throw a Pokeball, but also what all those pictures under "Method" in the Psydex actually mean.The Black and White Gym Leaders & Elites page that was just never posted before now. (Oops.)The next section of the Black and White Walkthrough courtesy of Frost's hard work. Also of note is that the Walkthrough itself has been expanded with the Wild Pokemon Encounter tables.

I've also been cleaning up a lot of stuff around the site that's piled up over the years, especially worrying about the Black and White section and trying to transition away from all the pre-release content to post-release. You can expect most everything in that section to be updated more in the coming days. More videos will follow as well.

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you enjoy the little bit of redecorating we've done for the day. It's always fun to celebrate.

Unfortunately, some sad news has turned up over the last few days. Takeshi Shudo, one of the original writers for the Pokemon anime passed away on Friday. He was 61.

We are happy to announce, however, that with the successful re-launching of the Dream World, new artwork has been released. This art isn't like Sugimori's art; the colors are more vivid, and sometimes entirely different. You can find the art added to the Picdex for all Generation I through Generation IV Pokemon.

Over the last several days, you may have noticed multiple changes popping up:A cool video showing off Black and White's camera.Another Black and White Walkthrough section, courtesy of Frost.A whole bunch of Nintendo Events for Black and White.The newest set, HS Triumphant was released last Wednesday and Frost has added the set to the Deck Dex.

A new TCG set ("Call of Legends") has also been confirmed for release on February 2. It is likely to be the last HS set, featuring reprints and cards that haven't been translated into English yet.

I'll try to have some more videos posted for everyone soon, but as the semester winds down, things get exponentially busier. Once things settle down, expect a lot more changes in the Black and White section.

To that end, what are the big questions you still have about Black and White? What sort of things do you think we should have an in-depth guide for, as a companion to the main Walkthrough? Let me know and if it's a good idea, it may just become the next guide for the new games!

Update (12/7/2010): Pokemon.com has confirmed that Zoroa's English name is its (incorrect) romanization, Zorua.

The English Pokemon.com web site has been promoting that it was going to reveal new Pokemon (i.e. the BW starters) today. After a bit of a wait, they finally just revealed the designs and the English names of the three Starter Pokemon, as well as the name of the new Region:

Also, the Isshu Region has been renamed the Unova Region. This is the first time that the English games have completely renamed a Region in the main series.

Additionally, the species of Reshiram and Zekrom have been revealed for English audiences. Reshiram is the Vast White Pokemon who has the Turboblaze ability, while Zekrom is the Deep Black Pokemon who has the Teravolt ability.

As far as English audiences are concerned, there are now six officially revealed/named BW Pokemon: Reshiram and Zekrom, who were revealed and named last May; the starters, who were revealed today; and Zoroark, whose name was revealed on the poster for the dub of movie thirteen.

Small update tonight. Frost and I have both been very busy with the end of our respective semesters of study. Luckily, there hasn't been all that much in terms of significant news, save for the few English names we've received.

It seems a large number of people have subscribed to our YouTube Channel over the last few days. To say thanks, I've uploaded another of the videos I recorded last time I had a few minutes to play some Black and White.

Once the semester ends, we'll get back to some more regular updates, and an overhaul of the Black and White section. Good luck to everyone else out there heading into final exams in the coming days.

Just a small update tonight. I've just settled back in for winter break, so I haven't had much time to work on things yet, but you can expect more in the coming days.

You'll notice that a fair number of Nintendo Events have been added. These include both events for Black and White in Japan, and some previous Japanese events for Gen IV now coming to the English-speaking world. Make sure you pick up the shiny Legendary Beasts, if only to access Zoroark when Black and White arrive next Spring!

Speaking of Zoroark, the 13th movie, which these Nintendo Events were originally for in Japan, is officially dubbed "Zoroark: Master of Illusions" and will air on February 5th, at the end of the Gamestop distribution.

Did you know Psypoke is on Facebook? You can follow us there for little notes, updates, and feedback. You can also use the buttons below this news post to share it, or any news post, with your friends on Facebook.

Before the rumors, though, the facts. As you might have noticed yesterday afternoon, our list of Nintendo Events continues to grow, now with the US release of Ash's Pikachu coming next month.

On to the rumors. There's been a lot of buzz lately about a GameStop flier that lists a Black and White release date. I'd like to point out that this flier is the same one that, up until a week ago, listed the release as April 1st. These fliers are not a legitimate source of information, as they are GameStop's own best speculation on a release date until an official one is announced. These fliers were also the same ones that listed HeartGold and SoulSilver for a late April release last spring.

That being said, if we look at the releases from Generation IV games, an April release is the most likely candidate. However, until there's an official announcement, any release date you hear is purely speculation. Therefore, until we get an official announcement, we will not be posting a definitive date here.

Edit: Much clearer scans of the boxart containing the screenshot of the three elemental monkeys have surfaced. Now that we have more to go on than a blurry picture that looked like it came off a cell phone camera, the names Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour are now reasonably credible. They won't be entered into the Psydex until an official announcement, however.

From all of us here at Psypoke, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to come, and hope that you enjoy these last few days of the year with good times in good company.